Certain business transactions generally require one party to obtain another party's signature. Courier services that transport documents and packages, for example, often require the recipient to acknowledge receipt of the delivery by providing a signature. Before the widespread use of mobile computer devices, delivery personnel would generally carry a clipboard with a signature sheet that they would present to the recipient after making the delivery. The recipient would sign the signature sheet with a pen or pencil to create a written verification that the delivery had transpired.
The advent of relatively inexpensive mobile computing devices has led to their adoption by many courier services that now use these devices to electronically capture the signature of a package recipient. The display screen of the mobile computing device is often a touchscreen, which allows for the recipient to record his or signature by moving a stylus or finger over the touchscreen so that the signature can be electronically captured and stored by the mobile computing device. While this approach simplifies the storage of the signature and provides for virtually instantaneous access to the signature when the mobile device is connected to a network such as the Internet, it requires that the mobile computing device be equipped with a touchscreen or similar display device suitable for accepting a signature.
Some mobile computing devices either do not have touchscreens or are so miniaturized that signing the touchscreen is impractical or impossible. Mobile computing devices that a user can wear such as head-mounted displays (HMD) or a wristwatch smartphones, for example, are generally not suitable for receiving a signature using the aforementioned method.
Therefore, a need exists for a method of capturing a person's signature using a mobile computing device (e.g., image-processing device) that does not require a touchscreen or touchpad input device.